Mate in 3: rook to h4 (d4·3)
li-0CKbwnaming tag (square·N)The tactical motive
Mate in 3: a forced sequence that ends in checkmate.
Difficulty 2239 ShuffleRating — expert level — few solve it at first try.
Black to move — find the best continuation
Position on the board
White: king h1, queen b3, rook f1, knight e3, pawn a2 b2 b6.
Black: king h8, rook d4 f8, bishop b7, pawn f3 e6 h6 h7.
7 white and 8 black pieces are on the board; the puzzle position arises after move 28.
Solution & explanation
Main line
28... Rh4+ 29. Kg1 f2+ 30. Rxf2 Rh1#
Why it works
- Great move! rook to h4 keeps the pressure (#2).
- Well found: pawn to f2 (#1).
- Strong! rook to h1 is the sharp choice (#).
- The line ends in a forced mate in 3.
- If instead Kg1, then f2+ and you stay on top.
Types in this puzzle
Mate in 3
A forced checkmate in three moves.
Mate in three is a forced staircase: each of your moves narrows the opponent's choices, and the third one ends the game. Look for the start among checks and sacrifices — quiet first moves are rare in mating problems, but deliciously sneaky. Keep the tree in your head: every defense gets its own branch. Do not stop calculating after move two — see the final mating picture with your own eyes.
Only move
Everything else loses — find the only move that holds.
An only move is a position where everything loses except one single continuation. You cannot play "by hand" here: run through fundamentally different defenses — run away, block, trade, counterattack — and discard the ones that fail. The hallmark of these puzzles is that the obvious moves lose quickly while the solution often looks strange. First understand exactly what the threat is — then the one saving move reveals itself.
Provenance
Derived from the Lichess puzzle database (CC0).
Pack 015
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